Tag: skills gap

Last year marked a milestone for the country’s youngest generation of workers, commonly known as millennials: They overtook baby boomers as the largest workforce segment in America. Employers should be ecstatic that elevated rates of retirement are positioned to be offset by an influx of younger, energetic, tech-savvy workers ready to stimulate productivity.

But in the construction industry, firms continue to wrestle with skills shortages as older workers in occupational categories such as welding and carpentry retire in large numbers with their potential successors disproportionately pursuing jobs in industries such as finance, professional services and health care. In 2002, 11 percent of construction workers were aged 55 or older, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By 2015, this share exceeded 20 percent, per the Current Population Survey.

What’s more, despite massive growth in the population of twenty-somethings in recent years, by 2015 the fraction of construction workers between the ages of 20 and 24 was around 7 percent—down from 11 percent a decade ago.

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 5—National construction employment remained largely unchanged for the second consecutive month, adding 5,000 net new jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis in April, according to analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data released today by Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC).
The nonresidential construction sector added 3,200 net new jobs in April after adding 8,500 net jobs in March (revised down from 13,300), while the residential sector added just 900 net jobs for the month. Construction employment expanded 2.6 percent on yearly basis, well above the year-over-year growth rate for all nonfarm industries (+1.6 percent).